Nanotechnology expert honoured by Royal Society

Published: 23 November 2004

Professor Jeremy Baumberg is this year's winner of the Royal Society's prestigious Mullard Award.

The award has been made to Professor Baumberg for his work in nanoscience and nanotechnology and for his contribution to the national prosperity of the UK through the University's spin-out company Mesophotonics Ltd in developing optical chips. He will receive his award from Paul Boateng MP, Chief Secretary to the Treasury on Monday 29 November at a Royal Society dinner.

The Mullard Award is given annually by the Council of the Royal Society to an individual who has an outstanding academic record in any area of natural science, engineering or technology, and whose work is currently making, or has the potential to make, a contribution to UK national prosperity. The Award is aimed at younger scientists, engineers and technologists and consists of a silver gilt medal, a prize of £2000 and a travel/conference grant of up to £1500.

Previous recipients of the Mullard Award include Lionel Pilkington who was honoured for his outstanding advances in the technology of glass manufacture.

Professor Baumberg says: 'It is a huge honour to receive the Mullard Award. The Award is a testament to the strength of purpose and dedication of a number of strong teams whom I am privileged to work with on nano-construction.'

Before taking up the post of Professor of Meso-/Nano-scale Science and Technology at Southampton in October 1998, Professor Baumberg explored novel ultrafast optoelectronics at the Hitachi Cambridge Laboratory within the University of Cambridge for four years. He has also held an IBM research fellowship at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a research fellowship at Oxford. His current post is based in the School of Physics and Astronomy but he also works widely across the University with researchers in Electronics and Computer Science and other departments.

He has a wide range of research interests spanning nanophotonics, quantum dots, ultrafast coherent control, self-assembling nanostructures, semiconductor microcavities and photonic crystals. His wide-ranging success was recognised by the 2000 Institute of Physics Charles Vernon Boys Medal, and the prestigious 2004 Mott Lectureship.

Progress in photonic nanostructures recently led to his involvement in the successful spin-out from the University of Southampton of a new company, Mesophotonics Limited. He also chairs the Southampton NanoMaterials Forum and is director of the Southampton NanoMaterials Rapid Prototyping Facility, which was opened last February by Minister for Science and Innovation Lord Sainsbury.